Mexico City movie theaters reopen after COVID-19

The government of Mexico City will allow movie theaters to reopen starting August 12 as part of an easing of the coronavirus lockdown.

After almost five months of being closed, 997 movie theaters in Mexico City will be able to operate at 30% capacity and following health measures.

Mexico City mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said that movie companies have presented fully developed plans against COVID-19.

Movie theaters

will be allowed to sell food, opposite to what a document issued by local officials mentioned a few weeks ago. However, all visitors and workers will have to wear face masks.

Recommended: 

“We will promote physical distancing; if you go with your kid, you can sit together, but no more than two people,” she said in a morning news briefing.

While big movie theaters had already presented the films they will display, smaller ones have decided to wait for a couple of days.

“We are getting ready; we will open until Tuesday 18,” said Carlos Sosa, director of the independent movie theater known as La Casa del Cine, which has two screens.

On the other hand, Sheinbaum said that theaters are not currently allowed to reopen. “ They have not reopened anywhere in the world; we’re talking with the Culture Ministry so that there are spaces for theater, we will present them soon.”

New guidelines that went into effect Monday also allow bars, swimming pools and museums in Mexico City to open at 30% of capacity.

The mayor delivered her daily press briefing from home on Monday after she announced she was isolating after one of her top officials tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

The city government has been performing slightly more tests than the strikingly low level of testing done nationwide. Nationwide, less than one in 100 people have been tested; the city has administered about 1.5 tests per 100 residents.

The city government reports about 80,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and about 9,400 COVID-19 deaths so far.

Nationwide, Mexico reported 5,558 newly confirmed coronavirus cases Monday, bring the accumulated total to 485,836. Confirmed deaths rose by 705 to just over 53,000.

Recommended: 

mp